PadelRef 1.5.0: change the rules without stopping the match

Update, 3 October 2026: 1.5.0 was released on the App Store only — it never reached Google Play. Android users get everything below in 1.5.5, out now on Google Play.

PadelRef 1.5.0 is rolling out on the App Store. The headline is a small button with a big consequence: the rules of a match are no longer locked in at the first serve.

Rules that move with the match

The whistle button on the scoreboard used to be a bare super tie-break toggle. It now opens a rules pop-up with the same chips as Settings → Match rules: scoring mode — Golden Point, Advantage or Star Point — and the decider, super tie-break or a full deciding set. Pick a new rule and it applies from the next point, with the score exactly where you left it. A group that started on golden point can move to advantage after the first set instead of finishing the match and starting over. Once the deciding tie-break is under way, the decider chips lock — the same guard as before.

Rotation that behaves

Turning the phone could leave a screen stretched across the wrong orientation and deaf to every tap, and Home, setup and Settings would happily follow the sensor into landscape after a cold start. Each screen now declares its own orientation to the system, so the rotation happens in step with the navigation instead of racing it. Portrait stays portrait, the scoreboard stays landscape, and coming back from a call or a share sheet on iPhone no longer leaves the scoreboard squeezed into a portrait window.

Small things that were bugging you

• A rematch starts from the rules you set the match up with, instead of inheriting a super tie-break someone switched on mid-match.
• Swiping back or pressing Android’s back button during a live match opens the Finish confirmation rather than silently dropping the match.
• The first “15” of a match is spoken again — voice announcements no longer swallow the opening point, on iPhone or Android.
• First launch opens onboarding directly, with no home-screen flash on the way.

The point for serve, on your wrist

Apple Watch users get the pre-match “play a point for serve” phase on the watch too: two halves, tap whoever won it, and that team serves first. Nothing is scored and it costs nothing from your remote allowance.

One more thing under the hood: from this version on, PadelRef can receive small fixes between store releases, so a typo or a one-line bug no longer waits for a review queue.

Give it a try and tell us how it feels — info@padelref.live. See you on court.